PR 5752 
.16 
1921a 
Copy 1 



IRELAND UNFREED 

"Poems of 192/ 



BY 



SIR WILLIAM WATSON 



IRELAND UNFREED 



IRELAND UNFREED 

POEMS AND VERSES WRITTEN IN 
THE EARLY MONTHS OF 192 1 BY 

SIR WILLIAM WATSON ^ 



NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY 

LONDON: JOHN LANE 

THE BODLEY HEAD, LIMITED 

MCMXXI 






Copyright, 1921, 
By JOHN LANE COMPANY 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York, U. S, A. 



RUG12'2! 

0)CI.A622389 



f/-. 



JBebtcatton 



To yoU; my little daughters, happy in being 

The daughters also of an Irish mother, 

And happiest when no other 

Than the sweet Irish air 

Is on your cheeks; to you that blithely share 

The gleesome hours, and catch their bliss a-fleeing, 

I, with grave pen inscribe this little book; 

Desiring — nay, foreseeing — 

That you shall live to look 

On Ireland's Freeing. 

W. W. 



The larger part of the contents of these pages has 
not been printed before, but several of the sonnets 
and other poems and verses forming the lesser part 
have been published in the London Daily News, 
and one or two in the London Times and the Daily 
Mail. To the editors of these nev^^spapers the 
author tenders his thanks for liberty to reclaim his 
contributions, some of which now reappear with 
altered titles, and three with material revision. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

DEDICATION V 

THE BOUND ONE II 

MORE THAN TROPHIES . . . . I4 

REPRISAL BY FIRE 1 5 

SONNET — TO THE PRIME MINISTER . . I7 

SONNET TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD . I9 

WASTED BLANDISHMENTS .... 21 

SONNET — TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRE- 
LAND 23 

COMPLETE DELIVERANCE .... 25 

A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY .... 26 

SONNET — TO ERIN ONCE MORE . . 28 

SONNET AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 30 

TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN ... 32 

SONNET TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET 

AGAIN 34 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



the stranger-minstrel . 
sonnet — secret communion 
to an irish patriot 
to an oppressor 
the two puissances 
the vision . 
England's choice 



PACK 

36 
38 
40 

41 
42 

44 
45 



IRELAND UNFREED 



THE BOUND ONE 

Thou whom not joys but perils and 
pangs allure: 

The white foam's sister, as the white 
foam pure: 

The dark storm's daughter, guarding 
long and late 

That far-descended heirloom, ancient 
hate: 

I cannot say — "In all things that con- 
cerned 

Thee and thy hopes I never swerved 
or turned. 

Or held with stumbling mind a waver- 
ing creed." 



12 THE BOUND ONE 

But this at least I can declare indeed: 

Through days with tempest packed, 
with thunder piled, 

My dream was of an Ireland Recon- 
ciled 

By utter undoing of wrongs all Earth 
saw done. 

And by //(// freedom to fair friend- 
ship won : 

Not mocked and cheated, conquering 
some vain goal 

That could but foil the hunger of the 
soul. 

And left as now, with the inmost ills 
unchanged, 

The Spouse whom wedlock hath the 
more estranged. 



THE BOUND ONE 13 

Whom bonds do the more direly rend 

apart ; 
No— but from long, long sickness of 

the heart 
Delivered : healed witn a more sovereign 

balm 
Than the old deep hurts have known: 

and in blest calm — 
An Ireland willing to be loved at 

last- 
Risen from the agonies of the love- 
less Past, 
Risen from a hundred shatterings, great 

and new. 
O that 'twere mine to see that dream 

come true ! 



MORE THAN TROPHIES 

Ev'n were thy freeing complete, 

The marks thy fetters made 

Could not for ever in a moment fade,, 

O Erin, from thy feet ! 

Why should they? Twere more meet 

That they remained, to be in times 
afar 

Held sacred, when perhaps mere glory- 
ing Power, 

And all its idols of an age or hour, 

Unreverenced are. 



14 



REPRISAL BY FIRE 

And this, is this the justice that we 

claim 
To have kept untarnished in all realms 

we sway — 
This revel of vengeance, blotting the 

pure day — 
These barbarous deeds, that well might 

make our name 
A byword and a hissing and a shame 
Throughout the Earth? This is the 

doom-paved way 
By which great Empires in august 

array 

March to their thunderous deaths 'mid 

rage and flame. 
15 



1 6 REPRISAL BY FIRE 

These are the acts that in an hour 

unblest 
Cancel a thousand deeds benignly done, 
Fling far away the good gains Wisdom 

won, 
And striking home to Man's most in- 
ward breast 
Make Domination seem a maniac jest 
Heard 'mid the flare of a distempered 
sun. 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER 
(The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) 

When France was flame, and Belgium 

ashes, and while 
O'er us the flying Death continually 
Hung near, you rose to greatness. 

You were he 
Who in the teeth of the enemy's might 

and guile 
Did set a-whirring throughout all this 

isle 
The Wheels of the Machine of Victory. 
And when shall we forget it? When 

the Sea 



17 



l8 TO THE PRIME MINISTER 

Forgets his thunder, or the Morn her 

smile. 
But O sad change! Chiefly, to-day, 

in this 
Your mastery towers — that you forbear 

to stir 
A finger, while your minions fierce and 

fell 
Shatter doomed Ireland's homes, and 

build in her 
A suburb of the great metropolis 
Of evil and woe, whose name on earth 

is Hell. 



TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD 

No thin, pale fame,, no brief and poor 

renown, 
Were thy just due. Of thee shall 

wise Time say : 
"Chartered for havoc, 'neath his rule, 

were they 
Whose chastisement of guilt was to 

burn down 
The house of innocence, in fear-crazed 

town 
And trembling hamlet. While he had 

his way, 

Converts untold did this man make 

each day 

19 



20 TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD 

To savage hate of Law and King 
and Crown." 

Great propagandist of the rebel creed! 

Proselytiser without Hving peer! 

If thou stand last — if thou but per- 
severe — 

'Twill be thy glory to complete indeed 

Valera's work, that doth ev'n now so 
need 

Thy mellow art's last touches, large 
and clear 1 



WASTED BLANDISHMENTS 

Yes, we do justice — ^here and there ; 
And patch and peddle and repair ; 
And even sometimes wonder, still 
Whether our Rule be good or ill; 
And marvel much, when Ireland's Soul 
Defies a Government's control ! 
We spread before her that vain bait, 
Co-partnership in our proud fate ; 
But waywardly and wildly wise. 
She turns thereon undazzled eyes. 
For she accounts of far more worth 
Each foot of that green piece of earth 



21 



22. WASTED BLANDISHMENTS 

Yonder amid the Atlantic spray, 
Where 'tis her children's dream to say 
"This is indeed our Isle — our ozvnl 
This is our Land — and ours alone." 



TO AMERICA CONCERNING 
IRELAND 

Friend with frank tongue, who o'er 

the unflattering sea 
Dost likewise flatter not: who view'st 

the maze 
And tangle of things through no vague- 
shimmering haze : 
Pledge thou thy word, that if, long 

urged by thee, 
We loose her bonds and set the 

Thralled One free. 
That Morn-fair deed, crowned with 

Man's golden praise, 
Shall not for us, in thy consenting 

gaze, 



23 



24 TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRELAND 

Prove the bright Mother of dark 

calamity ! 
Then shall we know that some who 

else might mar 
The Dayspring, and drag Midnight 

from its grave — 
Some whose imperial dreams are loth 

to die — 
Will listen first beside the Western 

Wave: 
Will hear thy thundered interdict afar, 
And flee in terror lest they hear it 

nigh. 



COMPLETE DELIVERANCE 

"A LEAP m the Dark/' say the cham- 
pions of Night. 

O surely a leap from the Dark, into 
Light! 



25 



A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 
Thee, wounded Ireland,, thee I gratu- 

late; 
First, on thy wounds; next, on that 

very fate 
Whose malice hath yet spared thee one 

worse woe 
Than even thou hast tasted. For 

althoug-h 
Grievous is thraldom, in a world be- 

thronged 
With the proud wrongers and the 
prostrate wronged, 

Far deeper is the unconscious misery 
26 



A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 27 

Of them that shackle those who would 

be free ! 
And though the thralled seem hapless, 

theirs who thrall 
Is the most dark, lost, heavenless state 

of all. 



TO ERIN ONCE MORE 

Upon that Day when thou among 

thy peers 
Shalt take the place that is by right 

thine own, 
Judge not of England with a mind 

too prone 
To harsh, hard thoughts! Though oft 

her palsying fears 
Did freeze up noble purpose, hers 

were tears 
For the world's heartache — hers no 

breast of stone. 

She wronged thee much: but speak 

not blame alone, 
28 



TO ERIN ONCE MORE 29 

When forth thou step'st into the 
happier years. 

And when, disburdened of a cumber- 
ing weight, 

Thou from the transitory and fugitive — 

From thy dead yesterdays — art loosed, 
to Hve 

At peace with God and Man and 
Time and Fate, 

Be thine the greatness of the more 
than great. 

Whose glory it is, divinely to forgive. 



AFTER NEWS OF AN 
EXECUTION 

Was it all folly — vender, hour by hour, 

To choose, not peace, but strife, and 
thereto dare 

The lion couched in his unnative lair, 

The world- feared lion, mighty to 
devour ? 

O that some folly as splendid were a 
flower 

Not, on all shores but those, so won- 
drous rare! 

Common as weed in Ireland every- 
where 

30 



AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 3 1 

i 

That splendid folly blooms, and hath | 

the power \ 

To make a mere slight boy not only I 

face \ 

Death with no tremblings, with no * 

coward alarms, i 

But like a lover woo it to his arms, | 

Clasp with a joyous and a rapt I 

embrace i 

Death's beauty. Death's dear sweet- 'i 

ness. Death's pure grace, j 

And count all else as nought beside j 

Death's charms. \ 



TILL IRELAND HAS HER 
OWN 

To all who heed, to all the freed, 

To all the un freed, 'tis known, 
There'll be no rest for Ireland's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 
Age after age will nurse the rage 

That breeds not rage alone, 
Bringing no rest to Ireland's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own ! 

And tell me, when may Englishmen 

Win back the peace that's flown? 

There'll be no rest for England's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 
32 



TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN 33 

Each day, each hour, unhappier Power, 

On an unsurer throne ! 
No rest, no rest for England's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER 
YET AGAIN 

(The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) 

Like your renown-clad namesake, who 

did slay, 
Far across Time and its vast charnels 

drear, 
If only with a legendary spear 
A fabled dragon, you in your midday 
Did unto ravening things give battle, 

and they 
Felt your light lance through all their 

scales ! They fear 
That lance no more, perceiving but 

too clear 

34 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN 35 

How rusted is its chivalry away. 

Plunged is that spear in no foul 
monster's side, 

But pointed at the Captive Maiden's 
breast, 

Who, greenly robed, sits pining to 
be free. 

For not as her Deliverer do you ride 

Forth, but to bid her guards be 
adamant, lest 

She escape i' the tempest from cap- 
tivity. 



THE STRANGER-MINSTREL 

O FAIR with broom and woodbine, 

And rowan and wild rose, 
Is the Land of Hope Deferred 

Where the shamrock grows; 
And thither did I stray- 
In the long-gone day. 
And I gave my heart away 
To sweet Ireland. 

Dead Songsters of her household 

Have loved her and adored. 

And their love was like a flame. 

And their song was like a sword; 
36 



THE STRANGER-MINSTREL 37 

But an alien bard to-day, 
All world-worn and gray,, 
Has sung his heart away 
To sweet Ireland. 



SECRET COMMUNION 

Pert Folly said to skyborn Freedom: 
'Thou 

Hast been so long unknown on Ireland's 
shore, 

Art certain she doth miss thee any 
more? 

Nay, if thou should'st return to-morrow,, 
how 

Will she remember thee, whose face is 
now 

One of the vague, dim things of here- 
tofore? 

What if she pause, loth to unlatch her 

door 

38 



SECRET COMMUNION 39 

To such a stranger?'' .Then with a 

lit brow 
Did Freedom speak: "Can Erin's soul 

forget 
Mine, her companion 'mid the fields 

and streams 
Of her far youth? Ah, no! And 

though it seems 
Ages untold since she and I have 

met 
Ev'n for a day, we meet at midnight 

yet, 
For always am I with her in her 

dreams." 



TO AN IRISH PATRIOT 

Your cause at its centre is pure: the 

wise plan 
Is to keep its circumference pure — if 

you can. 



40 



TO AN OPPRESSOR 

Come down from thy high seat ! 

If with the blood of men 

Its steps be sHppery, the more easy, 

then, 
The offsliding of thy feet! 
And back thou never shalt be asked 

to climb 
While this tired World ascends the 

stairs of Time. 



41 



THE TWO PUISSANCES 
Ireland, two Puissances there are,, that 

claim 
Untrammelled sovereign lordship and 

control, 
This o'er thy body, thy fair outward 

frame, 
That o'er the innermost places of thy 

soul. 

One, by the Thames, of perishing clay 

and lime 
Built its chief seat, and of mere 

crumbling stone. 

42 



THE TWO PUISSANCES 43 

One beside Tiber, gazing beyond 

Time, 
Hath its un frail, unmundane, mystic 

throne. 

And great and mighty are both these 

Powers on earth, 
O Ireland! But all men that breathe 

can see — 
Except the sightless who are blind 

from birth — 
Which of the twain doth verily reign 

in thee. 



THE VISION 

I LOOKED forth through the Void, 

And a dark Hand did draw 

From the near West a curtain, and 

I saw 
Dull Tyranny, on the breath of Folly 

upbuoyed ; 
And a blind surgeon. Statecraft, there 

employed 
To keep the wounds of Ireland ever 

raw; 
And Rapine, masked as Order, his 

vast maw 
With vengeance still uncloyed; 
And round these forms, a dance of 

lawless Law 
O'er Liberty Destroyed. 

44 



ENGLAND'S CHOICE 

Yonder where shakes with antic 
laughter 

In elfin moonlight the spoilful sea, 
What shall the stars behold hereafter — 

Ireland captive or Ireland free ? 

Tempest or calm for the Mother who 
bore us, 
Age-crowned England — ^which shall 
it be? 
Reproach or acclaim in the morrow 
before us? 
Ireland captive or Ireland free? 

45 



46 England's choice 

The quick and the dead have joined 
their voices, 
O mighty and proud one, crying to 
thee — 
"Choose — while as yet in thy hands 
the choice is : 
Ireland captive or Ireland free/' 



A List of Books by the same Author 

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 

N.B. — In every case where it is not otherwise stated, the 
hooks in this list are published by John Lane, The Bodley 
Head, Limited, London, or John Lane Company, New York, 

THE PRINCE'S QUEST AND OTHER POEMS 

First published by C Kegan Paul & Co., 1880, and 

now by John Lane, The Bodley Head, Limited. 

Price $1.30 net. 
EPIGRAMS 

Published by G. G. Walmsley, Liverpool, 1884. 

Noiv out of print. 
WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE AND OTHER 
POEMS 

Published by T. Fisher Unwin, 1890. Out of print, 

but its contents now incorporated in "Poems." 
WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE 

Illustrated by Donald Maxwell ("Flowers of 

Parnassus" Series). Price, leather, $1.00 net; 

cloth, 75 cents net. 
POEMS 

Published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and after by 

John Lane. Now out of print. 
SELECTED POEMS 

Price, cloth, $1.25 net. 
LACRIMAE MUSARUM AND OTHER 
POEMS 

First published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and 

after by John Lane. Now out of print. 
THE ELOPING ANGELS 

Price $1.25 net. 
EXCURSIONS IN CRITICISM 

Essays and Comments on literary subjects. Price 

$1.50 net. 
ODES AND OTHER POEMS 

Price $1.30 net. 
THE FATHER OF THE FOREST AND 
OTHER POEMS 

Price $1.25 net. 



"THE PURPLE EAST" 

A series of Sonnets on England's Desertion of 
Armenia. Price 50 cents net. 

THE YEAR OF SHAME 

With Introduction by the late Lord Bishop of 
Hereford. Price $1.00 net. 

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD AND OTHER 
POEMS 
Price $1.25 net, 

ODE ON THE DAY OF THE CORONATION 
OF EDWARD VII 
Price $1.00 net. 

FOR ENGLAND 

Poems written during estrangement. Price $1.00 
net. 

THE POEMS OF WILLIAM WATSON 

Two volumes. Edited by J. A. Spender. Con- 
tains almost the total contents of the preceding 
volumes in this list, with the author's very nu- 
merous emendations. Price $2.50 net. 

NEW POEMS 
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SABLE AND PURPLE 
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THE HERALDS OF THE DAWN 
A Dramatic Poem. Price $1.25 net. 

THE MUSE IN EXILE 
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PENCRAFT: A Plea for the Older Ways 

An essay challenging certain tendencies of mod- 
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RETROGRESSION AND OTHER POEMS 
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THE MAN WHO SAW AND OTHER POEMS 
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THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS AND 
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:^S^?i-'^, 



